Untitled
by A Fish That Has A Secret Wish
Summary: It really wasn't fair. She'd never asked for all this magic. She didn't even like faerie tales. "'Stranger than fiction' my ass." OC-centric, long term series.
1. Prologue of Garbage

**Untitled  
**_Harry Potter fan fiction  
_**Genre:** Humor, Adventure, Romance  
**Rating: **M for language and gore  
**Summary: **There's such a thing as too much convenience. Gaddy can be the judge of that.  
**Notes: **There are OCs, and since they're human, they will be judgemental, though what they think of other characters is in no way a testament to what I think of the cannon. At least, not completely.

Prologue

"I'm just not sure it's the best course of action, Professor."

Even as a Professor, it was a shame to be indoors on such a fine summer day. Unfortunately, it was also the summer of 1994, and the news Professor McGonagall had just received during this particular season had no other option save her current pacing of the Headmaster's Office at Hogwarts. As per usual, Professor Dumbledore's lax position regarding the whole mess only furthered her worry.

"What exactly do you feel uneasy about, Minerva?" Dumbledore stood behind his desk, turning to the side to rub at his dear Fawkes's belly.

McGonagall watched pointedly as Fawkes crooned in content. "You say you suspect upcoming Death Eater activity, possibly involving You-Know-Who. Don't take this in disrespect, but Albus, I already find that hard to believe."

"No disrespect taken." A quirk of his lips made McGonagall huff.

"And then this young witch appears, one who's been in America all her life but has somehow been recorded in Britain's native citizen files, with the possibility of having such an extraordinary power. It's all so…out of the ordinary. And outrageously convenient."

"As are the mysteries of life."

"But-" A familiar rumbling of stone-on-stone cut McGonagall off. She rolled her eyes to the office's high ceiling as heavy footsteps led to the office's oak door being thrown open by a largely ecstatic Game Keeper.

"She's sent her reply, Professor!" Rubeus Hagrid spoke rapidly, trying hard to regain his lost breath in between words. "The Beauxbatons Headmistress-replied to your request sir, and-says that she would love-to have her school participate-in the Tournament-again!"

Dumbledore held up a hand, chuckling. "Slow down, Hagrid, take a breath. This is good news, or else we wouldn't have a Triwizard Tournament."

Nodding, Hagrid turned away and took a few moments to gulp at the air. When he turned back, catching McGonagall's quirked eyebrow, a bright blush spread under his beard.

"Sorry about that. I, uh, ran straight here soon as I got the letter…"

Dumbledore nodded, ignoring McGonagall's eye roll. "And we do appreciate your enthusiasm, Hagrid."

"Thank you, sir."

"That reminds me." McGonagall cut in, "How is this girl, already years behind in magical studies, supposed to cope with the bustle of the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Oh, is this about the American girl? I've never met an American before," Hagrid put out.

Dumbledore nodded at him before addressing McGonagall. "I actually hoped the attention on the Tournament would allow her more time to assimilate the culture, and just as well give all the students lighter course work in lieu of the Tasks."

McGonagall puffed up, "Oh no, Albus. You can rest assured that my classes will stay just as vigorous, if not more so now that rival schools are taking a judgmental eye to our castle."

"And I've got a treat coming up for Care of Magical Creatures, Professor. It'll be a great course this year." A distant twinkle came to Hagrid's eyes.

McGonagall crossed her arms, "Careful Hagrid, we don't want anyone getting overwhelmed and losing an arm."

"Oh, er, no, nothing'll happen," He replied quickly. "The little tykes'll enjoy 'em...and I'm sure the students'll be gentle."

Tipping his head to his fellow administrators, Hagrid took his leave. McGonagall stared at the door for a moment, then shook her head and turned back to Dumbledore.

Before she made to say anything else, he cut in, "I understand your concern, Professor. But recent events have to be taken into account. Bertha Jorkin's disappearance-"

"Alleged."

"-Only proves that Voldemort is still out there, probably at the hands of Peter Pettigrew. And that they can cover large-distances in short amounts of time. If they were to somehow find out about this witch's capabilities, despite her being in America, I wouldn't underestimate their doing something to gain it. I would prefer her being educated in the situation before they tried to get to her. She'd be safer here than anywhere else, and I'd rather not risk having Voldemort cross international borders with his influence."

McGonagall sighed. "I trust your judgment, Albus. There's still an unsettling air of self-fulfilling prophecy about this but...I just hope, for everyone's sakes, that you're wrong about You-Know-Who."

A sad smile played on Dumbledore's face. "I've been hoping that for the past 56 years…"

McGonagall sighed and nodded again, before making her way to the door.

"Oh, and Minerva. I have one more thing to ask of you."

She paused, turning back to Dumbledore.

"Letters have already been sent out to the young lady, but it appears they haven't gotten through. I believe some of your authority as Deputy Headmistress would help me greatly, if you were willing."

McGonagall pursed her lips and walked back towards Dumbledore's desk.

* * *

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

_of _WITCHCRAFT _and _WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(_Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards_)

To Ms. Gadiel Atiyeh

Second Floor Guest Bedroom

108 Arragon Rd

London, E6

UK

Dear Ms. Atiyeh,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

_Deputy Headmistress_

"Uh…Gaddy?"

When she heard the tell-tale rush of thumping overhead, Hannah returned to the question at hand. The letter she read over her morning coffee wasn't all that strange; odd paper, no stamps, and a wizened looking wax seal, but for a joke, she'd seen more extravagant. The strangeness was in her teenage daughter getting anything in the mail at all, and so expressly posted to her.

"Sorry Mom, still packing." Gaddy glided into the kitchen, moving around the table and grabbing a cookie before settling at her mother's right side. Glancing at the letter in Hannah's hands, she asked, "What's up?"

"This…came in the mail for you, and I'm not sure what it's all about…"

Gaddy leaned in over her mother's shoulder, scanning the letter. She reached out a hand, "May I...?"

Silently Hannah gave her the letter, sipping her coffee and watching as Gaddy settled into a chair at the table. After a moment, a slight smirk played on Gaddy's face.

"Well," she let out a derisive chuckle, "British people surprise me more and more every day. This is the weirdest prank I've ever seen."

Hannah nodded, setting down her coffee mug. "There's a supplies list as well. And the express posting has me a little bogged. It's a bit too close for a prank, don't you think?"

Gaddy only grinned more. "'Bogged'. We come to Britain for a few weeks and you're already into the slang."

"Well," Hannah rolled her eyes, "At least our slang is more interesting than the tripe your American coast has come up with. If I hear someone say 'dudette' one more time, I'll kill the bugger."

Gaddy chuckled and stood up, letter in hand.

"You don't have to worry about this." Gaddy moved from the table back to the kitchen entrance. "We're leaving anyways; if this was some stalker, he'd be hard-pressed in getting much from me between now and tonight."

"Alright then. Just, be careful anyways. Jack the Ripper's more than a ghost story in London."

"Thanks Mom," Gaddy called, continuing through the doorway and down the hall. "The paranoia is refreshing."

Hannah called out, "Just doing my job," pulling another chuckle from Gaddy as she started up the stairs.

When she reached her half-packed bedroom and locked the door, Gaddy pulled out the prank-letter and read through everything twice over, her grip nearly ripping through the paper.

The unsettling part of the letter was not the postage, or even the idea of magic. It was the fact that the letter was identical in every way, except address, to the previous three letters she'd received before. The first had been sent to her by post in the mail with a normal address, but the other two had appeared out of nowhere in the most uncommon places, especially the letter before this, which had quite literally dropped in front of her during an afternoon run around the block.

All the letters had the legitimate wax seal. All the letters had the ridiculous supplies list. All the letters told her she was magical. And the scary part was, she wasn't sure whether or not it was true.

Gaddy patted the letters back together before ripping them up and tossing them in the large plastic bag in the middle of the room. She didn't have time to ponder on the improbability of having magical powers. She needed to make sure everything was together and organized for her trip back home.

A soft knock behind her made Gaddy turn and open the door. Standing in the hall with a very bemused look on his face was Cabel, her seven year old brother.

"Have you seen Captain America? I can't find him and he can't be left here by hisself." Cabel leaned his curly head towards Gaddy and whispered, "He doesn't really like Granddad."

Gaddy grinned, placing a hand on Cabel's head and nodding, "Granddad's a probably too strict for America's independence. And he's sitting on my night-stand; I found him in the closet where you thought it'd be funny to hide last night and fell asleep. Nearly gave us all a heart attack."

Cabel crossed his arms, "It's not my fault you take so long on your runs."

Gaddy stood up straight. "Well, now you're taking too long packing. Grab the captain and finish up; I'll be in there in a few to check what you've got."

"Alright!"

Gaddy blinked when she caught a slight British lilt in his reply. After he left, she continued putting away the room, cleaning out loose papers and debris, and reorganizing her belongings to fit everything in her suitcases. She was throwing away an Upton Park flyer when she caught sight of some of the parchment from the letter in the trash bag. It had the 'H' seal of the alleged school that was harassing her.

She stared at it for a moment, before saying loudly, "There is no such thing as magic."

The Upton Park flyer was thrown in with the rest of the garbage.

* * *

**Endnote:** We all know who owns what, so screw disclaimers. This is going to be a very long term story, covering from this point in the fourth book and on. Criticism is extremly helpful. And I won't be promising any kind of consistency with posting up more chapters: I'll admit that I have roughly 10 chapters written, but I've already decided not to post three of them and I have to edit everything else to fit the lack of info from those, so this is still a rough work in progress. The posting of this first chapter surprises even me. So, there's all that.


	2. In Which There Is Pot

Chapter One

Home, as Gaddy had unavoidably come to call it, was not sweet. She'd grown accustomed to the peaceful bustle of pedestrian London, the air of respect, or at the very least, personal space, that graced the good natured weather and historical pretense of the city. Jacksonville was just hot and humid and rude, and living on the Beaches side of town only barely provided temporary escapes from the loud-mouthed society of Duval County.

"So, what's the plan for school?"

Currently, Gaddy sat under the wooden planks of the Jacksonville Beach Pier. She threw a shell at the waters a few yards away, contemplating the question. Madeline Commonwealth, who sat against a support beam a few feet across from her, was to Gaddy what most people might call a friend. They'd met in middle school, found a few similarities, and could tolerate each other outside of class. Madeline had a way of adhering to untold boundaries that Gaddy appreciated, amounting to quiet evenings spent enjoying the last few days of summer before high school.

"Well," Gaddy leaned back against one of the supports. "I've decided I'm going to Stanton for their IB program. The councilor was griping at me before summer to take it. She said I'd already be ahead from being in the gifted-program for so long, and that I had 'potential'."

Madeline, who was leisurely smoking a blunt she'd rolled at her father's house, chuckled. "You'd think they'd know by now that inspirational clichés are half the reason why we flick off our 'potential'."

Gaddy pulled her knees to her chest, cracking her neck. "Regardless, I want to be able to study what I want, and I don't feel like giving it up because things here are annoyingly vocational."

"Aren't you into theology?"

"I want to study the origins of religion."

Madeline looked out at the waves, blowing smoke through her nostrils. "Most people would think it's ironic that an atheist wants to know where god comes from."

"Most people would think it's ironic that a stoner likes to read Plato and Noam Chomsky."

"Touché." Madeline closed her eyes and dropped her head back, sighing. "So...Did you meet anyone interesting?"

Gaddy rolled her eyes. "Am I supposed to answer that honestly?"

"Okay, _my_ definition of interesting."

"Right," Gaddy sighed, laying her legs flat and trickling sand over her knees. "No. I didn't spend much time talking to people, just seeing the sites, looking up the history."

"Great," Madeline chimed in monotone.

"Well, I didn't go there for you…Cabel met someone though."

Madeline took another long hit. "Your brother doesn't deserve a sister like you."

"I'm nice to him. I like him. Just no one else."

"Well, he's not gonna get his people skills from you. Anyways, who'd he meet?"

Gaddy dug her fingers into the sand on her right. "Some guy whose name I don't remember. Cabe said he was really nice. He wore clothes that were too big for him. Reminded me of the guys here."

"Get to the interesting part."

"The only thing I found remotely weird was this scar he had, on his forehead. It might've been on purpose, the way it was set up. It was in the shape of a lightning bolt, the symbolic kind that's normally used for electric plants."

"That's freaky." Madeline sat up straighter. "Did he say anything about how he got it?"

"No. I didn't ask. None of my business. I just saw it when a breeze blew his bangs over."

"…Jeez Gadiel, get me a souvenir next time, that sucked."

Gaddy shrugged. "I didn't intend it to be good."

Madeline turned her head away, sighing out smoke. A breeze blew it back in the conversational respite, the burned pine smell tickling Gaddy's nose.

"Something's weird about you now," Madeline muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"You're different. I dunno what, but something happened while you were gone."

Gaddy had never known anyone quite as uncanny as Madeline. Like many great-but-dead people, Madeline seemed to function at her best when she was high. If there was such a thing as a sixth sense, she would be the one to have it.

"I guess you could say something happened. But I don't know exactly what."

"…You'll find out soon, though. I've got this feeling..."

Gaddy snorted. "You know I never put stock in that intuitive bull."

"That's fine. I've been right before and you know it."

Gaddy considered this for a moment…She glanced at her watch. It was almost dinner time and her parents didn't necessarily know she was at the beach with her pot-smoking friend. She stood, brushing herself off before pulling her hair into a ponytail.

"Well, I'm off."

Madeline waved an arm lazily. "See ya."

The two and a half miles to Gaddy's house was probably the only thing she actually enjoyed in Jacksonville. With her father having taught her soccer since she was young, Gaddy was always inclined to run to places. Fortunately, the best way to get anywhere at the Beaches was running, and from the pier she could make it home in a little over 10 minutes, if she tried.

During this particular run, something caught Gaddy's eye. She'd made it a fun habit of noting little details as landmarks along her routes. This time she was just short of a quarter of a mile from home and had the pleasure of spotting a new marker. A random set of bushes lay on the edge of an empty lot, with a stool-sized rock settled next to it. The rock had a particular shape to it, reminding Gaddy of a mushroom. Currently, a brown tabby sat on it. It watched Gaddy motionlessly as she passed.

There was only one intersection with an actual streetlight that Gaddy had to deal with on her route. It was close enough to home that she could see her street sign, Madrid St, a few blocks ahead, the familiar willow tree near the sign covering the '-drid' of the name. Gaddy pressed the pedestrian button and waited, jogging lightly in place. A meow made her look around. To her right, down the sidewalk, was another brown tabby, similar to the cat from the mushroom rock, and watching Gaddy just as pointedly. She stared back, cocking a brow at the apparent stalker.

At this point, a particularly obnoxious car sped down the street Gaddy needed to cross. Judging by the increased acceleration at the now yellow light, Gaddy knew the driver was going to run a red, and she stayed put until he passed. The cat didn't.

A twitch of movement in her peripheral made Gaddy do a double-take. The tabby was now upright, still staring at Gaddy, but now turned towards the street. She looked away, watching as the car zoomed down the street. Something clicked in Gaddy's head a few seconds before it happened, and in that instant, everything froze. Literally.

It looked like an all-too-real picture. The car in front of her, a red Camero, was barely a foot away from the tabby mid-jump. Gaddy could even see the frat boy-esque driver, his windows lowered and his face contorted in a look of shock and anger. The cat, as purposefully as ever, had jumped into the street just as the car ran the light. The driver honked his horn, and Gaddy had reacted on instinct, throwing her hands out and, in effect, hitting a 'pause' button on the whole scene. Looking ahead, behind, and down both ways, it was clear to her that half the block was frozen in time.

"You have got to be kidding me."

Gaddy glared at the driver, his tilted hat making her angrier, and then at the cat, clenching her hands. It was blatantly clear that the issue she'd thought would be resolved when she left London had simply followed her home. Whatever was happening, it was centered on Gaddy. And she had no clue how to make it stop. Or restart. With another quick glance, she ran on, sprinting around the back of the car and towards home.

By the time she turned onto her street, she'd settled back into a jog, hoping no one saw, hoping this was just another freak accident. Logically, it couldn't have been another coincidence, but then, logically none of this should be happening. Especially with that cat. She couldn't shake the idea that it somehow _knew_ she could freeze it, as if it was baiting her into the act. At that, Gaddy snorted. Above all else, no self-respecting cat would jump in front of a car on purpose. She was sure of that.

As if on cue, a meow and rustle from one of her neighbor's bushes made Gaddy stop. She stared at it, clenching her jaw at the impossibility of it being what she thought it might be. Apparently sensing her incredulity, the tabby stepped out of the bushes and walked into the middle of the sidewalk, sitting upright in front of Gaddy. Before she could do or say anything that would be ridiculous to say to a cat, the tabby seemed to blur in front of her, before morphing into what Gaddy could only describe as a woman in the most expensive Halloween costume she'd ever seen.

"Good evening, Ms. Atiyeh."

Gaddy took off running, practically shoving passed the woman. She had no semantics that could properly pad the shock of the situation, no helpful disability that she could use for denial. It also didn't help that, not twenty feet later, a loud crack seemed to bring the woman right back in front of her, cutting her off from her house. Gaddy's eyes widened as she skidded to a stop.

"This is not a joke, Ms. Atiyeh."

This made Gaddy step back.

"...'Not a joke'? _Not a joke_? You were a _cat_ two minutes ago! You were a god-forsaken cat! A cat that tried to start a car accident! Excuse me if I'm freaking out right now."

"This is neither the time nor the place. There are Muggles everywhere, and I need to speak with your parents as well."

"Wha-no! No, you are not bringing my parents into whatever the hell this is until I know what's going on. Who are you?"

The woman sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose underneath a pair of slim glasses. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts."

The accent, which Gaddy finally registered as Scottish, connected the title to the letters she'd received in London. She took another, larger step back.

"…Those letters were from you."

The woman, Ms. McGonagall, nodded, casting Gaddy a weary and patronizing stare as she pieced together the situation.

"And that school and magic. That's all supposed to be real."

Ms. McGonagall stepped up to Gaddy.

"I don't have to tell you that magic is real. You've been doing it yourself for quite some time."

* * *

**Endnote:** Despite the title, Madeline seemed pretty bland to me here. I never saw her anywhere outside of this scene; kind of like how little kids think their teachers sleep at school when class is over; and Gaddy's not much for hilarious, weed-fueled banter. I guess I also experimented with people who have magical tendencies, but not actual magic. Kind of like a Squib, but I know Madeline has no magic in her blood... And yes, I do have friends that get regularly high, and I have been around them during those times. It tends to be those who are new at smoking or who have just been smoking a lot that act like idiots. Sorry mass media made you think all drug-takers are immediately bumbling-idiots.

Regardless of what I said about not posting up three of the chapters I've written, this turned out to be one of those chapters. I figured word vomit here was easier for the reader than bits and pieces of backstory squeezed awkwardly in later. Plus I get more time to characterize Gaddy. So, it's all good.


	3. In Which 'Magic' Is Typed 23 Times

Chapter Two

Professor McGonagall counted her lucky stars that Gadiel's parents were, by her judgment, 'hospitable' Muggles. Had they been anything else, her and Gadiel's arrival, which involved Gadiel explicitly running upstairs to what McGonagall presumed was her bedroom, would have been made that much more difficult.

Their house was nice enough. Aside from the indescribable muggle 'technology' strewn about, the place had a very homey feel. Currently settled in their sitting room, McGonagall could see a litany of family pictures on the walls and a few portraits on a rather large cabinet that held what she'd come to understand was a 'television'. The three piece sofa set was black leather, and the ornate rug had a large display of Arab design. In fact, there were many little touches of Arab culture around the house, with warm-colored knick-knacks, elaborate lampshades, and beautiful shelf designs. Even the cup of tea she held had a distinctly Arab pattern.

Gadiel's father, a broad-shouldered, tanned man who'd introduced himself as Solomon, sat in what McGonagall perceived to be 'his' armchair, across from her place on the loveseat. When he spoke, a similarly warm accent colored his words.

"So, what do you teach at this school?"

McGonagall had to think about that. Transfiguration didn't have a simple translation to the studies Muggles took.

"I teach an element of science that deals with mass…conversion, and…structural studies…"

"Like Chemistry? Or Physics?"

"Physics. With fragments of anatomical theories."

"Interesting. Gaddy is very good with the sciences, and math. Though she does like history much more."

"Ah…"

McGonagall peered around the room again. There wasn't much to be said until the whole family was present and Gadiel ready to entertain the news. The sound of footsteps made both Solomon and McGonagall look up as Gadiel's mother, Hannah, turned around the banister and glided into the room, settling in the corner of the sofa nearest to Solomon.

The combination that Solomon and Hannah made as parents, most specifically seen in their absent daughter, was invariably interesting. Solomon's collar-length black curls framed his round face in a way that reminded McGonagall of the prospective student wandering somewhere upstairs, her hair equally dark and supple, but straight and waist-length. Yet her skin, unlike her father's, was much lighter, and akin to her mother, she was a bit on the short side. As McGonagall had seen on the way to the house, mother and daughter both had an interesting way of stepping lightly, almost gliding when they moved about.

"Sorry everyone," Hannah spoke with both a light smile and a furrowed brow. "Gaddy'll be down in a few. She's a bit…off about something."

"You're British?" The accent had caught McGonagall's attention.

"Erm…Yes. Is there something odd about that?"

McGonagall tried hard not to blush. "Oh, no, no. It just explained why the…school received information on your daughter a short while ago. You were in London, according to our…post, and the administration wasn't sure as to why we'd only just received information on your daughter."

"Oh, well, my parents and I moved here when I was young, and I met Solomon and settled down here while my family moved back to London. Funny story, actually, I was visiting them while I was pregnant and went into labor the day I was supposed to come back to Florida."

Solomon pouted, "I almost missed my daughter's birth; that's not funny."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Anyways, Gaddy got her initial citizenship and papers all done up in England, and we didn't get back to the States until a few months later. So, technically, she's a native British citizen."

Now things were starting to click for McGonagall. Hogwarts automatically sent letters to of-age prospective students who were both citizens and residents of the surrounding UK area, which was supposed to make it easier to keep track of Muggle-Borns. In Gaddy's case, her magic, citizenship, and residence had to have been detected during the summer time window, and since she lived predominantly in America, McGonagall figured that was what made for the delay in information. Her earlier remark to the Headmaster on the convenience of the situation returned to the forefront of her mind.

"So, Professor." Hannah brought McGonagall back to attention. "What exactly does this school want with Gaddy? What's so special that you've been sent overseas to scout her?"

A number of possible things to say went through McGonagall's head. She pursed her lips and straightened her glasses.

"Have you ever noticed anything…strange about Gaddy? Nothing negative I assure you, but odd things. She'll be in one place, and then suddenly in another. Or something lost and assuredly gone might've found its way back. Maybe you would be doing something, and all of a sudden it would be much later than you'd thought it was. Like time passed without you noticing it."

Both adults stared at the severe-looking woman in dark-green robes. She'd come off as strange from the get-go, but what she was talking about seemed a little too outlandish. Solomon spoke first, his face slightly darkened with suspicion.

"We aren't too sure what it is you mean by that. Strange…When she isn't at school or running, Gadiel is with us, and nothing like that has ever happened that we can remember."

McGonagall pressed on. "Well, have her schools ever reported anything strange?"

"No, we-"

"Has she herself ever acted strangely? Or has her younger brother said anything odd about her?"

Hannah spoke up, defensive, "Look, we don't know what you're talking about. What do you mean, 'strange'? And how do you even know about Cabel, we never introduced him to you."

McGonagall sighed. She'd waited long enough. It was now or never. "Your daughter-"

"It's magic, Mom."

The three adults turned to see a very flustered Gadiel standing in the archway, arms crossed and hair a little mussed. Hannah frowned.

"Magic? Gaddy, wha-"

"The school's magical. Mom, Dad, I'm a witch."

It was a good thing Cabel was off on a sleep-over at a friend's house, as Gaddy considered the blank looks on her parent's face, because that was what she figured to be the calm before a nasty looking storm.

"Gadiel, whatever this is, it isn't funny," Solomon admonished, his accent growing thicker in his bewilderment

"It's not a joke Baba. I'm still trying to figure it out. But…This woman, Ms. McGonagall, morphed from a cat in front of me." Gaddy stepped into the room. "A _cat_. I was coming home and this tabby started following me, and then a car almost hit it-"

"Your daughter has the makings of a very powerful witch, Solomon." McGonagall took a calm sip of her tea. "Tell them, Gadiel, what you did. You saved my life."

At that comment, Gaddy twitched. "Only because you jumped into the street! What kind of cat-?" McGonagall's quirked eyebrow cut Gaddy off. She turned to her parents and took in a deep breath.

"When I was coming home, I stopped at the light on the corner of 1st and 30th, and there was a car speeding, trying to beat the light. I was waiting for him to pass when this tabby showed up, and right when the car came the cat jumped into the street. I just sort of…reacted, and I froze them…for lack of a better term."

Hannah sat back. "'Froze' them?"

"Yes. It's hard to explain. It looks like if I throw my hands out-" She demonstrated throwing her hands, palm out, in front of her, "then the area around me basically freezes in place. Not like ice, more like hitting 'pause' on something."

McGonagall added, "It is a most extraordinary gift. Not something I've ever seen before. The Headmaster and I wish to take her back to Hogwarts and-"

"Hogwarts!" Hannah stood up. "That's…that's what was in those letters! That's what this was all about! You were sending those letters, and then all of this happened."

McGonagall sniffed. "If you please, magic doesn't start happening in the middle of a person's life. We are born with it; it is in our blood."

"But…how?" Solomon ran a hand through his hair. "How could it be in her blood; we do not have any magic in us."

"To the contrary, Solomon. Many excellent witches and wizards come from Muggle, that is, non-magical families. I have a young witch in my House, about Gadiel's age I'd think, who's the smartest of her age. Her parents are dentists."

"Yes, well, I'm a school-teacher and Solomon is a businessman." Hannah plopped back down on the sofa, speaking in rapid, frustrated tones. "We aren't discussing vocational decisions here. Wha-you simply show up on our doorstep, granted you are dressed a little funny, and decide it'd be funny to convince us not only that magic exists, but that our daughter has been _bestowed-_"

"As I have said, one cannot be-"

"Oh whatever it is you're saying! Magic doesn't exist! That's it!" Again, Hannah stood up, pointing angrily at Gaddy while sizing McGonagall up. "As for Gaddy, I have no clue what it is you've done to her to convince her of this, but if you don't leave our house this second, I'll...I'll..."

"Call the police?"

There was a loud crack, familiar but still frightening, in which McGonagall simply vanished from the room. Hannah let out a scream at the same time, and Solomon went wide-eyed and gray. Gaddy took a shaky step back, fists clenched, before haphazardly looking around. With another crack, McGonagall reappeared, still sitting calmly in the loveseat, sipping tentatively at her tea.

"No smoke. No mirrors." She set the cup down on the table. "I highly doubt your Muggle police force would be able to find me before I was back at the school."

Hannah fell back on the sofa next to Solomon.

"B-but...you sent us that letter when we were in London, and you're Scottish as well. That must mean-"

"Although most students flank from England, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is located in a remote area of Scotland, to keep it out of the bigger Muggle cities and have minimal chances of discovery."

At this Solomon stood up, advancing on McGonagall. He pointed a finger to her face. "You will _not_ be taking my daughter away to some-some _magic_ school in Europe," he gritted out. "Not so far away from us."

McGonagall eyed him. "If you please, I am not so worried about you, at the moment, Solomon."

It took a few moments, but Hannah managed to sit Solomon back on the sofa with her, an arm around his shoulder as he hid his face behind clasped hands.

Gaddy took in the situation with anxiousness. She'd only rarely seen her father so worked up, mostly because he was a quiet man. He was the more patient of her parents, cool and level-headed. Gaddy figured that was where she got it from. What was she supposed to do with the shattered remains of her rationale now? After all her studying, all her hard work and faith in the physical laws of science and reason, Gaddy had only achieved a curt slap in the face by her own hand. For a brief moment, the once high school-bound teenager wished for one thing. Ignorance.

Hannah looked up at McGonagall. "If you'd give us a moment."

McGonagall gave a curt nod before moving outside of the room. Gaddy followed, leading her down the main hall and into the kitchen, which shared an additional doorway back into the living room. McGonagall settled herself at the dining table while Gaddy sat on a stool at the black granite island, her back to the professor. The quiet was filled only slightly by the murmurs of her parents in the other room, and the occasional sip McGonagall took from her tea.

"Do you guys have wands," she asked after a while.

McGonagall pulled out hers thoughtfully. "Although the source of magic is generated from within the wielder, a wand is necessary to direct most magic. Which is why you are such a special case."

Gaddy sighed, clasping her hands and putting them to her mouth. When she spoke again, her voice was muffled. "Why am I a special case?"

"What you described, what you did before, is powerful magic. You essentially altered time, without doing any harm to the balance of any sort of universal continuum there may be. Not only can you seem to do that without a wand, but also without much of a thought. It's almost subconscious for you, like basic magic would be. Not many have been recorded with such powers."

"'Not many' as in how many?"

"None, as a matter of fact."

Gaddy blew out an irritated breath. "…So, what would happen if I didn't go to school?"

"Some students are homeschooled, but they have magical families to coach them. You do not. Most likely you'll end up not having control over your magic and will do something that could threaten the secrecy we've held for so long."

"Secrecy?"

"We've hidden ourselves from Muggles for a long time now. That's why you didn't initially believe in it. And we plan to keep it that way. The Salem Witch Trials wasn't just a rude way of dealing with non-believers."

Gaddy groaned. One of her favorite bits of religious history had just been ruined.

McGonagall looked at Gaddy's back, surprise on her face. "It's interesting how negative you are towards the idea of being a witch. Most students, especially Muggle-borns, are excited when they found out they're 'special'."

"If I wanted to be special, I'd have probably been using my powers in front of people by now."

"So you've known about your powers?"

Gaddy turned, "Not really. I froze a guy on a bicycle once while in London. He was about to hit me, and apparently his brakes weren't working. No one was around, and I thought it was some natural anomaly. I figured I could look it up later. Or else just leave it behind when I got home. School starts in a few days, and magic-ing it up would make high school a bit difficult for me."

Gaddy watched as McGonagall nodded. It was her first real look at the woman. She looked like the epitome of a schoolteacher, graying hair pinned up in a sleek bun, a beaded cord for her glasses, and the kind of wrinkles a person gets from late-night paper-grading. Her tone was always clipped and businesslike. And then there was her 'wand'. It looked very arcane, made of a dark wood with a slight bend in the middle. It could've been just a movie prop, for all Gaddy could tell.

"Gaddy!" She immediately hopped off the stool when her mother called her. "Bring the Professor in, please, so we can all talk."

Gaddy glanced at McGonagall, who'd already stood up. She left her tea on the table and led the way into the living room. There was an empty, clenching feeling in the pit of Gaddy's stomach. She seated herself in her father's armchair, McGonagall settling back into the loveseat. Hannah turned to McGonagall, looking around a hunched over and brooding Solomon.

"You…must understand. We've all been perfectly fine until this, those letters, came along. We don't know what to make of this. We still barely believe all this stuff about magic is real..."

McGonagall nodded solemnly, "Would you like a more...concrete demonstration, if only to settle the fact?"

Hannah moved back, startled. It was Solomon who spoke up, his head suddenly shooting up straight and watching McGonagall.

"Show us. Something less...startling, if you don't mind."

McGonagall nodded curtly, standing up. It only took a moment for her to blur into the tabby cat that started this mess. Solomon muttered an Arabic exclamation as she settled onto the coffee table. Long seconds ticked by, before Hannah slowly reached out and petted the cat. She purred, leaning into Hannah's hand and rubbing along it before turning tail and jumping off the table. She'd morphed back by the time she touched the ground, standing upright and turning to sit back on the loveseat. Hannah sat back, clutching her hands together.

"Will-" Solomon's voice came out hushed and cracked. He cleared his throat, "Will Gadiel be able to do that?"

McGonagall half-smiled. "With a lot of hard work and studying, perhaps. That was advanced magic. But there is so much more she could do. If she were to hone her skills, she may even make a life out of magic. Given she wanted to."

"But, if there is magic, it has to be worldwide, right?" Hannah sat up again. "It's not just in the UK. So, there should be a school in America that she can go to, so she won't be so far from home."

"The Salem Institute for Witches, if I recall correctly. Schools exist all over the world for magical students. But I feel, as objectively as possible, that Hogwarts is the stronger school. The Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is the most powerful wizard in the world, and it is at his request that your daughter come to our school."

"I appreciate your offer," Hanna tried to smile politely. "But we would still be much more comfortable if Gaddy were to stay in America."

McGonagall stood. "You would think, if the school in Salem has as much acclaim as it does, that they would've tracked down your daughter's trace by now. Still, I understand your concern. I only came to make the offer. But I would like to say one more thing." She turned to Gaddy. "No one has the abilities you've shown today, and I can't say whether or not you would get as adequate training and insight into such a power at the American institution as you might at Hogwarts. If I were you, I would want as brilliant a mind as Professor Dumbledore's assisting me."

Gaddy stared back at McGonagall, her jaw set. It was obvious McGonagall was baiting her, but whether or not she should take it was the bigger concern. McGonagall turned back to Gaddy's parents. From her robes she pulled out a familiar envelope.

"In case you change your mind before September. Thank you, for your consideration. I will see myself out." With that she turned and walked out of the room.

Looking at her parents, a mean little knot planted itself in the pit of Gaddy's stomach. She wanted to tell them that it wasn't fair, that she didn't ask for this, and that if she could, she'd give all the magic in the world just to stay with them and forget any of this happened. When McGonagall left the house, however, the sound of the front door slamming shut jolted Gaddy upright. Another familiar crack made the knot swell, and Gaddy pushed out of her seat and ran to her bedroom.

* * *

**Endnote**: Ick. Okay. So. I was passing over this particular chapter today, and realized how shitty a reaction I gave Gaddy's parents about her situation. So, I guess I could call the little edits I did 'patchwork'. I dunno. Long story short, I hadn't posted on here for so long that I forgot how to go about replacing a chapter, and deleted the old one before realizing how much shuffling I'd have to do. And I lost the old endnote. So...just take my word for it, not so happy with this chapter anyways, but it's kind of necessary background, and hopefully you won't see too much of the seams of the patch in here. So yea. Here's to this. Funny how my most recent post is really just chronic editing of an old chapter. I really need to work on something new.


	4. In Which Gaddy Goes A Little Batshit

Chapter Three

Things could've been worse. Gaddy could've been told she was a princess of some far-away, insignificant land, and that she was required to take up its rule as well as avoid being assassinated by some evil general or another. Or she could've been told she was an alien. Hell, they could've even said she was the heroine in some B rated kid's movie.

Staring at the pointy-eared, ugly, wrinkled little man that scowled at her from his ridiculously high front desk, though, Gaddy realized she would've preferred being an alien princess in a B rated kid's movie. At least there would've been some kind of universal explanation to her suffering. At least she could've thrown her arms up, made a speech about fate or courage, and trucked along in her fake little world.

"Thank you for your business with Gringott's Wizard Bank," the goblin clerk sneered, pushing his spectacles back up his obscenely large nose while sliding what Gaddy assumed to be a stamped receipt to her mother. "Please come again."

Gaddy crossed her arms and blew a dark strand of hair from her eyes. Taking on a rickety, underground, high-speed railroad system had definitely not been on her list of things to do.

Hannah jiggled the velvet bag of wizard currency in Gaddy's face.

"It's like we've broken into some sort of super-secret underground world," she breathed, an excited gleam in her eye as they stepped out of the unreasonably tilted building and onto Diagon Alley's cobble-stoned streets.

Gaddy rolled her eyes. "That's because you did, Mom."

McGonagall, acting the coolly gracious tour guide, paused in the sectioned-off clearing in front of the bank.

"Now that you've got your money, we'll be marking things off the list." She handed said parchment to Gaddy, who reluctantly took it. "I'll take you through most of the necessary shops before escorting you out through the Leaky Cauldron. I believe you can find your way from there?"

Hannah nodded, already starting to wander into the wriggling crowd of shoppers. "It's no trouble, really. Oh, what is this?"

Gaddy watched her mother with irritated disbelief. She'd originally been the most vocal in refusing that her daughter would be going to 'some magical school in the country'. And yet, after almost a week of no one mentioning anything of McGonagall's first visit, Hannah confronted Solomon, school letter in hand, and argued full on that Gaddy _had_ to go, that it would be what was _best _for her.

Needless to say he'd been angry. Couple his logical adherence with his infinite love for his little girl, and you had a very large, very angry Israeli man to deal with. No wonder he'd later decided to not accompany Gaddy and her mother on their trip for school supplies; if it were completely up to Gaddy, she probably would've stayed home, too.

McGonagall stopped them in front of a shop with crooked steps and a misaligned doorway. "Here is where you'll get most of your supplies. Flourish & Blotts is known for its wide-range of books, but also has writing accessories and packets that are fairly exceptional."

Featured in the store's window was an advertisement for a collector's set of books by an apparently renowned author. She wore a lot of pink and smiled too much. It was to Gaddy's not-so-shocked surprised that the image of the author on the front of one of her books moved, with the woman swaying around, giggling, and waving at the onlookers. Gaddy double-checked her list, thanking whatever force was at work that none of her required materials came from that particular author, and led the way into the store.

It had, of course, been explained to her that students normally started at Hogwarts when they were 11, as what were called "First Years". Professor McGonagall had been the one to assure Gaddy and her family, though, that it would be up to her to make up the knowledge, and that the grades for the initial three years Gaddy missed were fortunately _not_ a requirement. So long as she was proficient in catching up now, she could earn good marks for future transcripts.

With Hannah fawning over magical accessories in the store and Professor McGonagall gone to conduct some business or another, Gaddy took time to explore the shelves. It was her belief that the best way to get to know a culture was through their literature; even if she'd never been a big fan of fiction or fairy tales, she enjoyed the subtle differences in historical interpretations and scientific studies. And going on what the woman behind the counter said, there was a promising abundance of historical texts, biographies, philosophical tomes, and scientific research notes for the picking.

There was also the trouble of avoiding random books levitating back into their shelves, or huge piles of dog-eared paperbacks tilting impossibly, but never actually falling over, and Gaddy could've sworn an empty ladder in the back rolled by itself along the shelves. Thinking back to the clean-cut, empirical shelves of her local 'muggle' bookstores, and how straight and plainly systematic everything had been, brought a wave of resentment to Gaddy. Magic was too wanton, too willful and unpredictably busy. She felt like she couldn't breathe.

Retreating to an inactive nook, Gaddy set her fresh pickings on small reading desk and flipped open the first thing she had; _A History of Magic_. It began as passively as most historical texts did, with a refurbished introduction added into Gaddy's newer copy, but already it had references to things she'd never heard of.

'_Although our esteemed author never covered the great modern battles, such as that of Grindelwald's Uprising, there is no less fascination in the histories detailed within the pages of this great and knowledgeable…'_

Flipping through the book Gaddy saw evidence of such fascination, with specifics of historical goblin riots, centaur strikes, and substantial moments of wizard-muggle interaction. A feeling of both admiration and distress deepened with every page she turned. These people, _magic_, had been around since forever. Her fingers itched for her old history books to match up some of these timelines, but at the same time, she felt more and more alienated. She didn't belong here; they had entire societies built on a secret that they've been able to keep for centuries. Was she supposed to just give up her old life for this?

As if purposefully distracting her, a page of the book slowly turned, moving towards the bulk of the book to the left of the binding. Gaddy's eyes ran across a very brief reference to a connection of Muggle religion and magic, and she perked up. Leaning closer, she read of how some historical 'religious' figures were really just wizards wandering about before the establishment of the wizard Statute of Secrecy, then dashed to the book's index for some kind of section that might explore more into the topic. Of course, there was none, but that didn't alter Gaddy's excitement in the least. Entire institutions had been devoted to unraveling the secrets of religious origins, but there had been no access to things like ancient charms or proof of magical creatures privy to important moments of religious myths.

"And here it is," she muttered to herself, flipping rapidly through the text again. "I've got the magic side of everything at the tips of my fingers." Her voice grew steadily louder. "I could...combine theories and unlock secrets no one could have dreamed of. Start a historical endeavor the likes of which no one's ever seen. There's no telling what I could find!"

"Erm, I reckon around here you'd find Quidditch-related information."

Gaddy jumped at the sudden voice, turning to find an alarmed looking young man a few feet away. He was dark-skinned, with large lips, carefully buzzed hair, and a cautious look on his face.

"You've…got your bonnet on straight, right? Or should I go find the clerk…?"

Immediately Gaddy shut down, a stony passiveness concealing her blush. "If I were crazy, I probably wouldn't be able to answer that question."

He held his hands up. "You're right, sorry."

Gaddy watched him for a moment. While his voice was deep, she tagged him as no older than herself, sporting a professional look in black slacks and a striped button-up, sleeves rolled back. He looked fairly normal, though his presence could only mean that he was a 'fellow' wizard. She turned back to her pile of school books, flipping to a random page of her history text and scanning it. The boy shifted behind her.

"Are you actually reading that?"

Gaddy didn't answer him.

"From the rest of your texts, I'd say you go to Hogwarts. I've never seen you before. What House are you in?"

Great, they went to the same school. Gaddy sighed. "I'm new."

"Oh…Well, where'd you come from?"

Gaddy spun to face him, finding that he was a bit too close for comfort. "Did you need anything from me, or are you just groping aimlessly for attention?"

The smallest of twitches signaled that he'd been caught off guard, before a smirk reinstated his ego.

"Just a name, if you will."

She bent down, grabbing her books. "Gadiel."

"Great. Interesting. I'm Blaise." He held out a hand as Gaddy stood up straight, arms full of books. She looked up at him, cocking a brow.

"I didn't ask." She brushed passed him, finding her way back to the register.

She wasn't sure what she'd been hoping for, honestly; Gaddy wasn't what one would call a 'people-person', and magical people were, in fact, people. She was a magical person, and had to remind herself thus. It shouldn't have been surprising that someone would try to be...hospitable. Especially during her little epiphany.

A smile returned to her face at the thought of the research to come. She still had time to decide, and who knows, something good could come out of this 'magic' deal. She called her mother over from a bin of quills. Hannah had been brushing her face with a peacock tail-feather when it turned into a large orange-red feather she couldn't identify. Excitedly she paid for that as well as Gaddy's books, and they left the store.

* * *

"Granddad, I promised I'll come by for the holidays. Are you going to stop moping or what?"

Henry only let out a grunt as they entered the bustle of King's Cross Railway Station, shaking off cold drops from the shower London was under. September had arrived in a sudden and pugnacious storm, and it hadn't been enough that some old, robed woman had come around to give him a heart attack with this 'magic' business, but he had been appointed the one to lug all of his granddaughter's school baggage down to King's Cross in such crummy weather, her mother having left the night before for America and his wife staying home to fix up supper. Just the idea of his granddaughter taking a train to who-knows-where and disappearing for the next few months made him surlier than normal. At six foot seven and two hundred something pounds Henry reminded Gaddy of a guard teddy bear, especially as he lumbered quietly through the crowd, her Hogwarts suitcase in tow.

The engraved suitcase had been one of the last things Gaddy had attained on her trip through Diagon Alley. It was essentially McGonagall's welcoming gift, surprising Gaddy and her mother after a tedious robe fitting at Madame Malkin's. Aside from her time in Flourish and Blotts, Gaddy had only found a few other interesting businesses in the outlet. The Apothecary was one, followed by her mother's insistence on visiting the Magical Menagerie. Nothing, of course, could've topped her frustration at the hands of Ollivander's Wand Shoppe.

Her wand, tucked safely in her draw-string carry-on, had been more trouble than it was worth, what with her going through five others and managing to set her mother's pant leg on fire before she found it. It was a 10" yellow Kaya wood, with a Hippogriff feather core, ignoring the fact that Gaddy had no clue what a Hippogriff was. According to the old shopkeeper, her wand was adept to the more logical arts, "…such as Potions, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Astronomy," and if she gave the wand high deference, it would do her well. In Gaddy's eyes, respecting an inanimate object was right up there with worshipping a figment of one's imagination, but she kept that little quip to herself.

The last time Gaddy'd seen McGonagall was a week ago, when she stopped by at her grandparent's home in Eastham to give her a train ticket. Gaddy pulled the slip out of her pocket now, peering from it to the pillars she and her grandfather were passing. When she saw the number 9 on a sign, she paused.

"Granddad, platform nine and three-quarters should be around here."

Henry stopped, turning around and cocking an eyebrow at her.

Gaddy sucked her teeth at him, remembering the argument they'd had on the existence of such a platform. "Ticket says: Hogwarts Express, Platform 9 and ¾."

His sardonic tone, had it not been so deep, would've matched Gaddy's own to a tee. "Well, here's platform 9, and over there is platform 10."

Gaddy frowned. There were no other instructions on the ticket besides the time the train would be leaving, and it was already a quarter 'til.

Henry walked over. "So what now, do we sit and wait for the magical pumpkin carriage to fly you away?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's obviously hidden so non-magical people won't run into it. We've got fifteen minutes, and I'm sure someone else who goes to Hogwarts will come by. We can just wait and see how they get there."

Henry grumbled, following Gaddy to a column in between the two platforms. She set her cart alongside the column, pulling _Hogwarts, A History_ out of her carry-on and flipping to the marker she'd last left. She'd already read through the founders last night, and had been amazed at the long-standing history of the school. Now Gaddy hovered over the thousand-page tome on top of her cart, Henry leaning against the column with his arms crossed.

Only a few minutes passed before Henry let out a low whistle at something, which Gaddy initially ignored, too engrossed by the interesting ideals of Salazar Slytherin and the legendary Chamber of Secrets.

"Oi, Gaddy," her granddad grunted. She looked up, at which point Henry nodded in the direction behind her, towards the entrance of the station.

A large, rowdy group of people were rolling an obscene amount of luggage in Gaddy's direction. They were mostly vibrant red-heads, with the exception of a vaguely familiar boy in glasses and a bushy-haired girl walking along the group's side. Gaddy counted seven in the group, led by a stocky woman she assumed was their guardian. Now, though, they were slowing down, apparently at the sight of Gaddy and her grandfather.

"They've been staring at us like that since they came in," he said, glaring back at the group.

Gaddy watched them as well, scanning for some tell-tale sign of what they might've wanted. It wasn't until she noticed a large H on the bushy-haired girl's suitcase that she snapped her book shut, standing up straight and crossing her arms as they came forward. The group milled about a few yards away, casting not-so-sneaky glances at Gaddy while the older woman walked up to them.

"Hello there, dearie. Did you need help with anything?"

Gaddy regarded her motherly tone briskly, "You know about Hogwarts, right?"

The woman blinked, looking around Gaddy to see her luggage. "You need help to get onto the platform," she chuckled. Gaddy leaned back a bit, looking at the group the woman now pointed at. "Those are my children, save the odd-ones-out, though they're all under my care. They're all getting on as well. I'll show you-"

From behind, Gaddy's grandfather cleared his throat loudly. The woman looked up at him, a look of understanding dawning on her face.

"You're Muggle-born?"

"I can't imagine how that could be your business," Gaddy replied, crossing her arms. She nodded at the group. "How do they get on the platform?"

The woman, at a loss on how to match Gaddy's curtness, turned to the column behind them.

"If you take your things and walk straight at the column, you'll get through the barrier and onto the platform."

Gaddy blinked. "You…want me to walk into this pillar. This _solid_ pillar?"

"Best hurry up to; the train'll be leaving soon."

Gaddy snorted. "If you don't mind, I'd appreciate a demonstration of this fun little way to make an entrance."

"Oh alright," The woman turned to the group. "Ron, Harry, Hermione, you all go first, your pets are making a racket."

Gaddy sighed, turning back to look at the group. One of the boys, the familiar one in glasses, kept staring at her, making her almost want to sic her grandfather on him. He, as well as the bushy-haired girl and one of the gingers, rolled forward while Gaddy pushed her things out of the way. One by one, the three teens walked straight into the column, phasing through it and _not_ coming out of the other side. It took a moment for Gaddy to get over her shock.

Puffing up her cheeks, she turned away, packing up her book and pulling the cart up. Henry let out a heavy groan as he followed and stood behind his granddaughter a few feet in front of the pillar. He placed a hand on her shoulder and they moved forward, Gaddy refusing the instinct to close her eyes as they passed through the column. They entered pitch darkness, a feeling of warm air and mist tingling along their faces for a few steps, and then an entirely new platform materialized in front of them.

"Well blimey," Henry breathed.

They coasted to a stop in front of a red steam engine train, the words "Hogwarts Express" printed in gold across the front. Looking behind her, Gaddy saw the same column embedded into the wall next to an archway. The train let out a loud whistle, and Gaddy glanced at her watch. It was five till.

"Need any help there, mates?"

A red and black uniformed serviceman popped in front of them. Gaddy nodded faintly, allowing him to roll her cart away.

"You can board over there." He pointed at an open door along the side of the train as he rolled her things away. "Run along now; the train's readying to go."

Gaddy turned to her grandfather, who was still gazing around at the platform. "I'll write you. It looks like I'll be doing a lot of writing anyways."

Henry looked at her, then leaned down suddenly and hugged her. "You just keep your wits about you, eh? Don't get bogged down with all this weird stuff. When you visit you can show me some of what you can do."

Gaddy smiled, trying in vain to wrap her arms around his broad torso. "Heh, alright Granddad."

He let her go, emitting a series of masculine grunts as he straightened his shirt.

Gaddy smirked. "Tell Grandma I said thanks for the snacks. And ask for help on how to get out of here."

Henry nodded, waving as Gaddy jogged to the train and up the steps. She turned once more, leaning out of the door and waving at Henry, a quiet smile on her face. When the whistle gave a final blast, she stepped in, shutting the door behind her.

* * *

**Endnote**: So this was a little 'meh' too, for me. Another of the 'supposed to be botched' chapters. This feels kind of like the reverse of the deleted scenes section on a DVD. I mean, I enjoy the insight we get from Gaddy and her view of magic here, as well as what kind of relationships she has, but this chapter felt a little long. Granted, it is the longest chapter of the story so far.

I just realized something: I've been reviewing my own story in my Endnotes. I'm supposed to leave that to you. Heh, it's kind of like at school, when I'm fishing for reviews from my peers and I have to point out my own flaws to stir something. It's my yearning for attention. I am saying this to obviously beg for attention. Pay attention to me.

I also realized that I seriously lied to you in the last chapter when I said this would 'possibly be out in the same night'. Not at all. This chapter's been sitting, generally ready for posting, all week in my files, but school's got me so flustered I didn't think about posting until now. Stupid senior year. Well, at least after this there should be no expectation. Wishes, maybe, for the next chapter, but no expectations. My next goal is to write a new chapter before I edit and post the next, since I've got a solid line up so far. So, you'll be waiting for that, I guess. Until then, link this around, share this with your friends, force this down their throats. I'm begging you...

And by the way, yes, that was 'a little bat-shit'. That's Gaddy. If you passed her on the street, or tried to hold a pleasant conversation with her, she'd probably be the most boring part of your day. But goodness gracious does her state of mind get her into some situations. Later, though, later. Now it's just a string of accidents and cuss words. Which I enjoy, even if many of you don't. Enjoy!


	5. In Which Does Draco Skulk Everywhere

Chapter Four

Despite her anxiety, the sight of lush, hilly countryside rolling passed her window relaxed Gaddy. She'd settled into a daze, watching the world disappear around a bend. There was an observant separation to it she wished she could actually live, if she still had any say in her new life.

A shuffle from above broke Gaddy's stupor. A lone briefcase skidded along the overhead shelf. So the compartment wasn't completely empty. She sat up, glancing at the closed door. The silhouette of a large, chattering group milled about in the hallway.

Gaddy stood and slid open the door, frowning at a pack of giggling girls. They huddled around the open compartment across hers, flirting with a group of boys. The boys had wands out, one of them sniggering over a bright pink toad that was slowly inflating in his hand. At the sight of her they all fell silent. She glared back, taking in the image of a fuchsia toad the size of her head and feeling her stomach drop. She was really riding a train to magic school. And teenagers were still stupid.

She slid the door shut and sat back down, looking back up at the briefcase. Hopefully whoever owned it was alone.

Upon entering a large cliff crossing, the train jostled, and the door to Gaddy's compartment slid open. She looked up, meaning to slide it shut again, and paused. Standing inside the doorway was a girl, maybe Gaddy's age, looking back at her in surprise.

"Uh…hello." The girl wore a sophisticated blouse and skirt combination, her dark hair held back by a silver pin.

Gaddy nodded at her, turning back to the window.

The girl stepped in and eased the door closed behind her, retrieving her case and settling in the other window seat. It wasn't hard to catch the few glances the girl threw her way, and after hastily pulling out her _Hogwarts, A History_, Gaddy worked at looking thoroughly engrossed in the large book.

"Excuse me…"

The girl's voice was very soft, as polite and lightly treading as possible. Gaddy cocked a brow.

"Do you mind if I opened the window? The rain's only just let up, and it's getting a bit stuffy in here."

After a moment, Gaddy scooted from the window. The girl paused a moment, then slid it open. A welcome breeze circulated through the compartment. She settled back in her seat, going through her case and pulling out some sort of pad and pencil.

Between the constant scratching of lead on paper and Gaddy's occasional page turn, the silence was filled just enough. They stayed that way for most of the train ride, interrupted a few times by a reoccurring snack-trolley and the rain starting up again, in which the girl simply shut the window. No words necessary. In a peculiar way, Gaddy almost wanted to befriend this girl.

That satisfaction would be short-lived. It was near evening when someone who was not the snack-trolley came uninvited into their compartment. This girl was a stark contrast to the first, with long blonde hair and a patchy jeans-and-hoodie combination. An annoying jangling alerted Gaddy to a necklace of bottle tops around this girl's neck. She tried not to look at her too directly. The girl sat next to the first, who was only just looking up from her sketchpad with a light smile on her face.

"I trust you had a good summer Luna."

The other girl, Luna, smiled a slow and almost dazed grin. "Oh yes. My father and I spent most of our time searching for proof of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack again. We came across some peculiar looking filaments that Father insisted could be the waste of a young Snorkack."

Aside from the ridiculous conversation Gaddy wasn't sure she was really hearing, she couldn't help but listen to them speak. The two had a similar softness to their voices, though Luna spoke whimsically and with a lilt, while the other breathed a charm that insisted one trust her, believe her, follow her.

"Did you ever find one," the first girl asked.

"No. But we did come across a horde of Gridbacked Fillywigs."

"What are those?" By now the girl had return to her pad, scratching out something in a corner while listening to Luna.

"They're like rather large rats, but with a hard, grid-like shell on their backs. They're supposed to produce a fertilizer in their spit that helps wand trees grow. Father is doing an article on them for the next issue."

"Interesting."

Luna reached up and fiddled with something on her ear; at a glance Gaddy could've sworn it was a miniature radish. "How was your summer?"

"It was pleasant," the girl sighed. "A bit busy. My parents have been trying to 'introduce' me to some sons of my father's business partners. Mother says it's about time I look at potential suitors. To 'keep the line clean'."

"I'm sorry."

"It was enjoyable in a few cases. Some of the boys had interesting conversation. One even liked my paintings."

Gaddy repositioned herself closer to the window, wishing now that Luna would leave. Unfortunately, this movement gained said girl's attention, and she turned to face Gaddy.

"I've never seen you before. Are you a new student," she asked, tugging on a lock of blonde hair.

Gaddy tried to ignore her, hoping she would go back to speaking with the other girl. Luna simply waited, staring at her. With a sigh, Gaddy nodded.

"Where are you from?"

Again, Gaddy tried to visibly focus on reading. Luna pressed on. "Have the Wrackspurts gotten to you? Is that why you can't talk? Can you tell me your name?"

"Luna, I don't really think she wants to talk."

"You never know, Odette; there are quite a few Wrackspurts on this side of the train. Maybe we should move her to another part."

"I don't think that's a very good-"

"And just what do we have here?"

All three girls looked up at the two new visitors standing in the doorway of the compartment. A boy around their age, pale face as pointed as his current sneer, glowered at them while leaning away from a stiff-necked, dark-haired girl, her teeth bared at the girls. Gaddy reconsidered finding a new compartment.

"Hello, Malfoy," Odette greeted monotonously.

"Crèer," the boy retorted. He crossed his arms, forcibly pulling one of them from the girl at his side. "It isn't much of a surprise to find you associating with the freaks of the school."

Odette sighed. "She's not a freak, though I don't see why that's your business."

"Well, unfortunately for me, this compartment is in the Slytherin car, and Loony Lovegood's not welcome here."

"Says who?"

This time the girl at the boy's side sneered, "Says Draco, and the Sorting Hat."

"Shut up, Pansy," Odette snapped.

"Don't you tell me to-"

"He's right, Odette." Luna stood up, a smile still on her face. "I'll just go on to the other part of the train. Even with my necklace, there are far too many Wrackspurts around here."

Malfoy and Pansy moved from the doorway just enough for Luna to leave. Unfortunately, as soon as she left they settled back in front of the door.

"You know, it's already bad enough that you act as if you're better than all of us, though I couldn't possibly fathom how. Your mother married a Frenchman, and the greatest family name you hold is, what, a relation to Borgin & Burkes?"

"Why does my life matter to you?"

"When you taint the Slytherin name by acting the way you do-"

"Who are you to decide how one goes about 'tainting' anything?"

Gaddy gritted her teeth against the argument. Couldn't the guy just leave? The way the Pansy girl was trying to fawn and sneer at the same time was sickening.

"Drawing your silly pictures won't get you anywhere in life. No one'll want an self-suffering 'artist' as sanctimonious as you."

By then Odette had returned to her sketching, ignoring him. After watching her for a few moments, Malfoy made to leave.

"I see you found him, Pansy."

To Gaddy's dismay, she recognized the new voice, and Malfoy and Pansy paused, still in front of the compartment.

"No thanks to you, Blaise," Pansy sneered back, grabbing Malfoy's arm again.

"What're you all up to?" Blaise peered into the compartment. Gaddy tried to look small in her corner, hiding behind her book.

"Oho, what is this?" It didn't work.

Malfoy looked back in the room with Blaise, and this time noticed Gaddy's presence. She cursed under her breath.

"Well now, you're new," Malfoy purred.

"Back off, Malfoy," Odette called from her seat.

"Hey there, Gadiel. I remembered your name." The pretentiousness in Blaise's voice made her want to gag.

"Gadiel, huh?" Malfoy said her name like he was tasting it. "You're not from around here."

Gaddy could practically smell the jealousy oozing off Pansy, whom Malfoy had pushed back so he could stand fully in the door, Blaise at his shoulder.

Odette sighed. "Malfoy, would you please just leave."

"Why in the world would I listen to you?"

"Because we obviously don't want to talk to you."

"Now now, don't talk on account of someone you don't know. She could just as well find this side more appealing."

"Or I could be seriously annoyed by you and your cliché posse." Gaddy hadn't moved an inch, nor taken her eyes off her book, when she spoke. "Please, shut up and leave."

Malfoy bristled, "Do you have any idea who-"

The low rumbling of Blaise muttering something in Malfoy's ear stopped him. So long as they left in silence, Gaddy couldn't care less what he was saying.

"Huh," Malfoy said after a moment. "You don't know, then, how things work around here. I can excuse you on…ignorance, so to speak."

The word was like a sharp knife to Gaddy, but she held her tongue.

"My name is Draco Malfoy, and I sincerely hope a witty little slag like you will end up in my House."

"Malfoy," Odette gasped.

He smirked, leaning in and nodding towards Gaddy. "Think on it."

With that Malfoy slid the compartment door shut, his and Blaise's chuckles fading away with the heavy stomps of Pansy down the hall. Odette watched Gaddy, who still read her book through the fresh silence.

"I'm sorry," she said after a while.

"What for?" Gaddy still hadn't moved, but her tone was loud enough.

"For him. Whether you're new or not, he has no right to act like he does. He's just insufferable."

"You had nothing to do with him being that way. So you have no reason to be sorry."

Odette took a moment to respond. "On behalf of the rest of the school, then. Most of us aren't like him. At least, most of us outside of Slytherin."

"Aren't you in Slytherin?" Gaddy turned a page.

"Yes, but I tend to not…agree with most of their views."

"Pure ancestry and 'great ambition'?"

Odette chuckled, "It's interesting sometimes; how that House of all Houses can have such single-minded goals."

When Gaddy didn't respond again, Odette turned to the window. Rain pelted the glass as the storm strengthened. She glanced at her watch.

"We're nearly there. I'm off to change into my robes. I would suggest you do the same, before the lavatories are full up."

With that, she snapped her briefcase shut and left, shutting the door with a soft click behind her. Gaddy turned another page, finally reaching the end of her passage. For all the hassle, she found the outcome of The Gray Lady's history to be disappointing.

Setting the book aside, she peered out the window. Through the watery haze, floating lights twinkled from the shady outline of a large structure, and a shimmering area below them indicated some kind of body of water, presumably the school lake. She sat back, eyeing the shadows of many students passing her compartment door. Looking closer, she could see there wasn't any kind of lock on it. She shrugged.

With a yawn, Gaddy stood, stretched, and grabbed her carry-on. She laid her uniform out on the seat in front of her. The sweater vest and tie still looked ridiculous, but if the storm was going when she got off the train, she figured the layers were tolerable. She slipped off her sneakers, simultaneously pulling off her shirt. On the uniform, she caught the lightest whiff of pumpkin, like her grandparents' house, and chewed the inside of her cheek from the nostalgia. There really was no going back now.

* * *

**Endnote:** Well, it has been entirely too long. Like, over two years too long. Like...I'm honestly surprised my stuff is still on here, despite how many times I myself have gone through finding awesome stories that have been inactive for years and...yea. I don't even know why I post on here, I don't really care about getting a beta anymore, and I don't particularly care what anyone else thinks about my story. I just realized, I just want to write it, to have be real and outside of my head. And I guess posting chapters on here gives me a sort of process to the magic.

Anyways, this chapter had been done and ready for a long time, I just stopped working on anything, including finishing editing this. And I might even post more, since I have a few more chapters in editing stage. But I think...I've been in a Potter mode these past few weeks, and I miss the magic and the writing and the imagining things, so I can venture working on this again. So long as I'm happy and something is happening, I don't see a reason to freak out about trying to meet deadlines and get reviews and blah blah blah.

So, those who read this and like it, hurrah, and thank you. If you want to leave reviews, go for it. If not, I'll still post, and if I'm not doing that, I'm probably replaying a Harry Potter game somewhere. So yea. Enjoy!


	6. In Which Magic World Has Water Balloons

Chapter Five

By the time Odette returned, Gaddy was already dressed and nodding off in her corner. She sat up straight at the sound of the door sliding shut. Odette seated herself back against the window, smiling once at Gaddy. The basics of her uniform were exactly the same as Odette's, but Gaddy noticed the trimmings of her vest, her necktie, and the inner lining of her robe were styled with a repeating silver and green motif.

"I'm assuming," Gaddy said, "That all the uniforms are customized like that."

Odette blinked. "Oh, yes. Slytherin robes are like this, but the others are different pertaining to their Houses."

Nodding slowly, they both turned back to the window. The rain hadn't let up, and now a loud wind rattled the panes. Gaddy could see the school a little better now, and she almost laughed. They weren't kidding about the castle.

The train approached the first station Gaddy had seen since the fractional platform, a walk gradually rising along the streetlights and buildings. Odette moved in Gaddy's peripheral, looking at her watch again.

"Something wrong?"

"No, not really." Odette looked back out the window. "We're just a little late, what with the storm. The Express usually stops in Hogsmeade at 7 exactly, but it's already ten after."

"Huh." Gaddy turned to the window as well.

The train came to a stop as an increasing roar of students passed their compartment. Odette stood, pulling a long, pale wand from her briefcase. Gaddy thought briefly about her own wand, sitting amongst some notebooks, pens, and old clothes in her carry-on. She stood, meaning to leave by herself, but paused when she saw Odette tapping her wand to her shoulders. Gaddy only barely heard her mumble something under her breath.

"A...spell," she asked, stepping back a bit.

Odette turned, wand held straight. "My family and I went on a trip to the north. Really rainy up there. I've got a knack for coming up with little charms, though, and figured one out for wet weather. It keeps my robes completely dry, but I haven't figured how to get it to work on a person's actual body yet." Her eyes lit up as she looked at Gaddy's robes. "Would you like me to do yours?"

Gaddy paused. A student invented a magical spell for rain-resistance. It was almost believable, like a teen figuring out how to make a car take more miles to the gallon without taking it to a shop. Gaddy shrugged. Maybe she'd learn something.

"Now, you might feel a little warm after this, but it's like a constant, dry heat."

Gaddy watched carefully as Odette tapped her wand on Gaddy's shoulders. At the last possible moment, she cringed at the thought of her robes catching on fire.

"_Siccus Pluvia."_

From where Odette touched, warmth spread all throughout Gaddy's robe. She hitched it tighter around her, enjoying the heat. It was like she got it fresh from her dryer. Pulling her hair back in a ponytail, she pulled on the hood and smiled at its warmth. Odette grinned, tucking her wand back in her robe.

"You said something about rain in Latin." Gaddy tucked her carry-on under her robes. "Is that how most spells work?"

Odette turned and slid the compartment door open. The hallway was clearing out by then, a group of kids half their heights scurrying along in a cloud of squeaky chatter.

"Yes. There's something about ancient languages that tap into the direction of magic. I for one can't wait until we start learning nonverbal spells."

They merged into the hallway. Gaddy followed Odette and ducked through the nearest exit, water immediately splashing around her sneakers and up her legs. A gust blew her robe open, forcing in ice cold rain before Gaddy yanked it closed. The tighter she held the robe, the warmer she felt. She bit her lip to keep a grin down.

Stepping away from the train and into a less traffic-heavy spot, Gaddy took a moment to look around. Even up close, the station felt a little lopsided, crooked buildings skewing her sense of balance.

"First Years, this way! C'mon now, First Years!"

Above even the tallest of teenagers, Gaddy caught sight of what could only be described as a man from the Ice Age. He easily stood around seven feet tall, and had hair coming out of places she didn't even know grew it so thick. Upon strained inspection she saw most of the hairiness was due to the mammoth fur coat he sported. The man held up a lantern. Stepping towards him, Gaddy noticed that he was leading the youngest children to a docking of small boats at the edge of the lake. The rest of the students were veering to the side, towards a road that led away from the station, into the lakeside forest.

"First Years, over here! If you're first, you're here!"

Gaddy frowned. This was her first year at Hogwarts, so was she technically a First Year? If she was a First Year, then that meant she had to go across the lake in this gale. Swimming was fine, she'd grown up in Florida. But wind and cold and whatever could be lurking in the lake? Not so fine.

"Gadiel! It's Gadiel, right?"

Gaddy turned to see Odette waving her over.

"Come on, or we'll get a stuffed carriage!"

There wasn't much to think about. Gaddy jogged ahead, trying to step lightly around puddles. Odette led her into the crowd, staying close as they stepped off the station platform and onto a gravel road.

Up ahead, a number of carriages sat parked in front of a lone streetlight. The light revealed a wooden sign, one plank indicating a place called Hogsmeade that was back passed the station, and the other pointing forward, marked 'Hogwarts'. Students rushed into the carriages, and the closer Gaddy and Odette got, the harder the crowd pushed. It was on account of good reflexes and Odette's timing that she and Gaddy made it safely into a carriage. Slamming the door shut, Gaddy looked around the carriage to see that it was already partially occupied.

"Hello," Odette greeted the other couple lightly.

The boy and girl, by the dim light of an overhead lantern, were holding hands. Tinges of yellow and blue in their robes indicated their Houses. The boy had parted hair that looked entirely too fluffy. He posed a large, pearly smile to Gaddy. She turned away, putting her chin in her hand and watching as other students shoved into carriages. The girl surveyed Odette's robes with a forced grin.

"Your name's Odette, right?" She had a Scottish accent, and high-pitched voice.

Odette nodded. "You're last year's Ravenclaw seeker. Cho…"

"Chang," The girl finished, her lips pursing. Gaddy snorted. Cho turned to her, her brow creased.

"Did I say something funny." Her lack of inflection made Gaddy cock a brow at her.

"She's new," Odette mentioned.

"New," the boy asked.

Gaddy sighed, cracking her thumbs and forefingers.

"Erm…I don't really know much. I've just met her myself."

"Well, that won't do." The boy leaned forward. Gaddy glanced at the hand he held towards her. "I'm Cedric. Cedric Diggory."

The carriage jolted forward, making Gaddy jump. She checked outside, confirming that not only hers, but everyone's carriages were being pulled by some invisible force. Ignoring Cedric's hand, she leaned to Odette.

"What's pulling the carriages," she muttered.

Cho cut in. "They pull themselves."

Cedric pulled his hand back. Only Gaddy's eyes moved to look at Cho. "I didn't ask you. And that's a stupid answer."

"Excuse me? What do you mean 'stupid'; it's magic." All pretense of politeness was gone.

"Again, did not ask you." Gaddy sat back, surveying the cliff side the carriages currently rolled on. She avoided looking towards the edge.

"You don't have to be rude." Cho was finger-combing a lock of her hair now.

"Odette." Gaddy paused for emphasis. "The way the carriages jumped forward, something has to be pulling them. Besides, why is there so much empty space between each carriage if there isn't anything there? Someone who's supposed to be a part of the smartest House should at least realize magic can't be the cop out answer for everything."

During that last statement Gaddy turned her eyes to Cho, who was full on frowning. A perplexed, pained look contorted Cedric's pretty features.

"I've never noticed that." Odette shifted to the side, peering out of her window. "You might be right. We can ask a teacher later, then."

The rest of the ride was silent. When the carriages finally rolled off the cliff side and through a pair of iron-wrought gates, Gaddy let out a bated sigh. The sharp drop from the cliff into the lake awakened a fierce nausea she'd only been able to fight down via holding her breath. As the castle front came into to view, she vowed next time to ride on the side facing the forest.

Two at a time, carriages released students in front of a corridor-like bridge. Gaddy slipped out of her carriage, following the crowd through the bridge and around a partially flooded courtyard to the castle doors.

Her stomached dropped when she crossed the threshold. The front hall of the castle was as large and regal as anyone would imagine a castle to be. Veering to the left to avoid the students passing, Gaddy stared at the marble steps that led to the next floor. The landing turned to the left and right, continuing through two archways. Just off the steps, two well-polished suits of armor stood guard at the back wall. Magic may be an amazing, and infuriating, phenomenon, but the upkeep of a castle thousands of years old was much more fascinating.

Behind her, a rickety noise sounded before Gaddy was shoved forward, making her trip on the rain-slick floor and screech. Whirling around, she clenched her fists and glared at the people coming in, until she saw something moving at the side of the giant doors. With a wheeze that was undeniably laughter, one of two suits of armor that flanked the front doors, stood doubled-over, holding its torso and pointing at her.

Gaddy's eyes widened. A suit of armor shoved her and now laughed at her. Magic or no, that was too good to believe. She stomped forward, dropping her bag and reaching out to grasp the helmet. She was not going to be bullied by some punk on her first day.

"Gadiel! Look out!"

On instinct, Gaddy spun around, saw a red object come flying for her face, and threw up her hands. She stood that way for a few seconds, waiting for contact. When it didn't come, she ventured peeking through her fingers. Though blurry, the red object hung paused in the air, a small drop of water falling halfway off the edge. It was a water balloon, and she'd frozen it. A loud cackling overhead made Gaddy blink.

"We've got ourselves a lively one, eh? Ugly little squirts!"

The thing zooming above everyone could only be described as a blue, loudly-clothed, attention-seeking hell-raiser. Gaddy'd read about him already. A poltergeist made up of ill will and the need to cause chaos. He reminded her of an obnoxious Joker.

"Gadiel?"

Turning to Odette, Gaddy blinked, picking up her bag trotting over.

"What in Merlin's name was that?"

Gaddy's eyes widened. "What?"

Odette waved her hands behind Gaddy. "What you did to the balloon!"

Gaddy remembered McGonagall telling her she'd been the only one with such a 'gift'. "It's…I froze it...I can make things stop in time, though I can't really control it."

"That's amazing! Does your old school teach that kind of magic?"

Gaddy frowned. "Old school? No, I-"

A bellowed curse from behind made her pause. Gaddy turned and saw that her balloon had apparently reanimated right onto the unsuspecting head of a familiar ginger boy. Before she could really see him, a wave of students pushed her and Odette the rest of the way through another set of double doors on the other side of the room.

Inside the next room, Gaddy paused, forgetting herself amidst the crowd and gaping upwards. Following her gaze, Odette grinned.

"This is the Great Hall."

* * *

**Endnotes:** If there was one thing about the movies I really didn't like, it was the complete removal of Peeves. He was just as important to the books as The Grey friggin' Lady, so I don't get why you'd remove him. And he was at least an excellent source of comic relief.

Anyways, if you must ask, and for those who vaguely remember from the book, yes, Gaddy accidentally got Ron pegged with a water balloon. Hey, if you want to fit an OC in a bigger story, you can find subtle little places. And I know it feels like way too many chapters before she meets anyone of importance, and it'll be many more until the plot begins to actually unroll, but hey, my point in this is not about Harry Potter and Voldemort. It's about Hogwarts, and magic, and school, and the other students. It'll be like Gaddy sort of gives us a behind the scenes look at everything, instead of all the focus on Voldemort. That'll be for the 7th book, if I ever get there before having children.

So yea. There's that. Later!


	7. In Which I Need to Eat a Hogwarts Feast

Chapter Six

"...There's no ceiling."

That's all Gaddy could see. She stood in the largest room she'd ever seen, with fluttering Hogwarts banners and a sea of other witches and wizards, and that's all she could articulate. Hundreds of lit candles somehow floated under an opening to the stormy night sky. She could even see the rain, though it never fell further than the candles. Scratch that moment with the toad; this was her true realization, this was her wake up call. This was really magic.

"Wha-How...I don't..."

"It's nice, isn't it?" Odette grinned. "Did your school have anything like this?"

Gaddy gasped. "God, no! I'm from America-"

"I thought that's what the accent was!"

Gaddy gave her a look. "I've never seen magic before now."

Odette blinked, grinning in bemusement. "What do you mean? You're Muggle-Born?"

Gaddy had to remember what muggle meant before she could nod.

"Oh. Oh, wow. That's...that's odd. You've never been taught magic at all before now?"

Gaddy returned to examining the ceiling, her hood falling off when she craned her neck. "Ms. McGonagall came to my home during the summer to give me my letter."

"In America?"

"Yes."

"Huh. That really is odd." Odette crossed her arms, her brow furrowed. "I've heard of transfer students; Malfoy's been telling everyone he knows that his father wanted him to go to Durmstrang ever since he found out about the Triwizard Tournament-"

"The what? Where?" Gaddy frowned.

"It's…erm…Durmstrang is a magic school in the northeast, for students in mainland Europe. The Tournament...well, it's supposed to be a secret, but you probably wouldn't care since you've never heard of it. It's-"

"Oh, Ms. Atiyeh, I was wondering whether you'd even come."

Gaddy turned automatically to the familiar voice of Ms. McGonagall.

"I see you've made a friend."

"Uh, no, I-"

"Nevermind, you need to be sorted. Just follow the First Years when they come in; you should be one of the first on the list." She tapped a roll of paper on Gaddy's shoulder and took off, her same bottle-green robes fluttering as she left the hall.

"…I guess we should find a place to sit, then." Odette turned to face the length of the Hall. "Um, I'm in Slytherin, so that table is the farthest on the left, against that wall."

Odette pointed at a table full of surly looking young men and women, sneering or frowning at something or another. Gaddy could see Malfoy's blonde hair bobbing around among two large boys who kept squinting like they couldn't understand something.

"But you being Muggle-born, I don't think-"

"What about the other tables?"

Odette chuckled. "After Slytherin, there's Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw's on the opposite wall. The Sorting happens directly in the middle, and the First Years come in between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables."

"Thanks."

Gaddy walked down the middle of the hall, slowing among the last of the students to be settled and looking between both tables. When she caught sight of "Cedric, Cedric Diggory" to her immediate left at the Hufflepuff table, she made a beeline for the very end of the Gryffindor table, sitting and facing the teacher's table.

In the center chair, a very old, very wizard-like man watched Gaddy, reminding her of every Merlin depiction she'd ever seen. She knew him to be the current Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. He leaned forward, looking at her over small spectacles. Gaddy twitched; she didn't like how he seemed to leer, as if he could see through her. A quirk in his beard indicated a half-grin, and the man raised a large, golden goblet to Gaddy, his giant pointed hat nodding towards her. She pursed her lips and turned away, staring intently at the double doors at the end of the hall. When the entire hall quieted and the doors opened, she leaned forward, cracking her knuckles and clasping her hands under her chin.

Ms. McGonagall emerged through the doors, carrying an old wooden stool in one hand, a large, ratty hat in another, and her scroll under her left arm. Behind her, the pint-sized First Years stumbled down the length of the hall. Gaddy crossed her arms and sat back, not too surprised the texts had been serious about the Sorting 'Hat' as well. She watched McGonagall move to the side, standing in front of Gaddy as the First Years huddled together. Gaddy counted 42 of them, dripping and shivering, one of the smaller ones weighed down by a vaguely familiar bear rug.

McGonagall set the stool down, sitting the hat on top. As soon as she did, it shivered and a large opening along its brim split apart, a loud, guttural drawl tumbling from makeshift lips.

"_A thousand years or more ago,_

_When I was newly sewn,_

_There lived four wizards of renown,_

_Whose names are still well known:"_

With wide eyes, Gaddy watched as an old hat sang the school's history in under a minute and thirty seconds. These ancient wizards had enough magic to do whatever they had done with the ceiling, and they had decided to bestow bad rhyming on an old hat. She couldn't help but laugh.

When the hat finished, McGonagall moved to the opposite side of the stool, unrolling her scroll. She turned to the First Years.

"When I call out your name," her voice snapped the First Years to attention. "You will sit on the stool and I will place the Sorting Hat on your head. When the hat announces your House, you will go and sit at the appropriate table."

She peered over her glasses across the line of students, stopping on Gaddy with a particular look before returning to the scroll.

"Ackerley, Stewart."

One of the taller kids, who had been ringing out a corner of his robes, stepped forward rigidly. He sat on the stool, wincing when McGonagall placed the hat on his head. After a moment, it bellowed, "Ravenclaw!" and the table to the right of Gryffindor exploded in applause. Gaddy watched the boy skip to his table, older students thumping his back and cheering. She hoped no one did that when she was sorted.

"Atiyeh, Gadiel."

Without a second thought, Gaddy pushed up from the table and sat on the stool, holding her bag in her lap. As McGonagall lowered the hat on her head, Gaddy reached up quickly and yanked her hair out of its ponytail. She crossed her legs and tapped her sneakers as the hat wriggled about. It was the most awkward feeling she'd ever experienced, something akin to being molested on her scalp, and all she could do was stare straight at the closed double doors down the hall, trying to ignore the hat's grunts around her ears.

"Oh no, this just won't do." Its grumbles seemed to echo through her mind. "If only Salazar had been able to meet you…"

Gaddy wrinkled her nose. Before she could say anything, the hat called out, "Slytherin!" and was removed from her head.

Instead of a loud applause, a scattering of claps could be heard around the aforementioned table, and those too were quickly hushed by the time Gaddy walked down the middle of the room and around the corner, sitting next to Odette at the very end of the table.

The sound of the next sortings echoed through the Hall, as well as the resuming of loud applauses, even for the few on Slytherin's side. Despite her earlier politeness, Odette now openly gawked at Gaddy. Gaddy simply pulled out _Hogwarts, A History_ and skipped to the descriptions of the Founders, glossing through Slytherin's aspects.

"Gadiel. Gadiel!" It was during the M's of the sorting that Odette finally regained her capability of speech. "You're Muggle-Born, right?" Her tone hushed. "Both of your parents are non-magical, right?"

"Yes." Contrary to Odette, Gaddy's tone was not lowered in the slightest.

"Merlin! You might not realize it, but this is a big, big deal. I…" Again she lowered her voice. "I don't think there's ever been a known Muggle-Born in Slytherin before. Maybe Half-Bloods every few generations, but no one from a non-magical family."

"And?" Gaddy turned a page and looked Odette in the face for what felt like the first time. "It shouldn't matter if I'm 'full witch' or not. I can do magic, as unfortunate as that is right now, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped gaping at me."

Odette blinked, her face going blank. After a moment, she muttered, "My apologies."

Gaddy turned back to her book.

"I'm Odette by the way. Odette Creèr." Gaddy turned another page. Odette cleared her throat. "We never properly introduced ourselves."

After a long moment, Gaddy spoke. "You already know my name. Just call me Gaddy."

"Alright." Odette grinned. "Gaddy."

Gaddy scanned the information on Slytherin House. Apparently the dorms were in the school dungeon, meaning she wouldn't be panicking in some unstable tower with a 'beautiful view'. That was just fine.

She was reading about how competitive each house was, and some ridiculous House Point System, when the Sorting ended and Headmaster Dumbledore stood.

"I have just two words to say to you," He spread his arms majestically, gazing around the Hall with the same grin he'd given Gaddy. "Tuck in."

It took immense will power and Odette's hand on her back to keep Gaddy from falling at the sudden arrival of food. A collective sigh echoed through the hall. Odette chuckled, ladling mashed potatoes onto her plate and dousing it in gravy.

"It's like magic, huh?"

Gaddy's stomach grumbled. "They don't do it like this in American schools."

Despite the questionable transportation, the food was delicious, and various. Between mashed potatoes, shepherd's pie, and a new found love for the non-pudding Yorkshire pudding, Gaddy filled up quickly. When dessert rolled around, Gaddy bit back a squeal. One thing she loved about the United Kingdom was its indulgence in pastries, and she barely noticed the Slytherin ghost's hovering until she was well into a third helping of Battenberg cake.

Mid-bite, Gaddy jumped when she faced directly forward and found the Bloody Baron staring at her. His arms were crossed, and he bobbed in the air across from them, glaring. After a few long moments, she frowned.

"Did you need something," she asked. The Baron only blinked.

Odette looked between both of them. "You know who that is, right?"

"Yes." Gaddy turned back to her plate, taking another bite of cake. "That doesn't explain why he's staring at me."

"He does it sometimes," Odette paused, licking some icing from her thumb, "when he's interested in something. The Baron doesn't really talk. All I've ever seen him do is float around, brooding here and there. Peeves is scared to death of him though…no pun intended."

"Peeves is the Poltergeist."

"Yes."

"The one who threw the balloon at me."

"Yes." Odette sipped some cream from her spoon. "By the way, what was that you did to the balloon? You said you 'froze it'? I don't understand…"

"It's like I said, I can stop things, freeze them in time."

"I've never really heard of something like that."

Gaddy took a sip of water from a bottle she'd had in her bag. "McGonagall said I'm the only one."

"Hmm. Well aren't you one to break the mold."

"..."

Odette tapped a finger on her chin, a thoughtful grin spreading on her face. "Between you, Harry Potter, and the Triwizard Tournament, it's going to be another interesting year."

"What's the-"

The sudden silence that followed the magical clearing of all plates cut Gaddy off. Dumbledore stood again, looking around at all the students.

"Now that we are all fed and watered, I have been requested to give out a few notices…"

He listed a number of general rules that Gaddy turned away from, barely listening while glossing over a new section in her book about possible secret chambers of the school. When he mentioned the canceling of some kind of inter-House competition, the entire hall literally gasped.

"What's going on," Gaddy asked.

"They canceled Quidditch this year," Odette whispered.

"…Ignoring the fact that I have no clue what that is, why?"

"You'll see."

Gaddy sat up, leaning back a little and watching as Dumbledore spoke around introducing some kind of school-wide special event. He was just about to reveal the event, when, along with a cliché roll of thunder, the Great Hall doors burst open.

The intruder looked almost too scary to be real, leaning against a long staff and covered in a black cloak. When he walked, alternating clunks indicated some kid of peg leg, and a flash of lighting illuminated every scar on his face.

Dumbledore shook the man's hand over the table. "May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody."

Two irregular applauses echoed dismally through the hall. Gaddy held back a snort and returned to reading, meaning to ignore the rest of Dumbledore's roundabout announcements. However, when the Great Hall again exploded in a mass of gasps and gossipy chatter a few moments later, she reluctantly sat up. A loud, "You're kidding!" from the Gryffindor table made Gaddy nudge Odette.

"It's what I was talking about," Odette muttered as Dumbledore worked on quieting everyone. "The Triwizard Tournament. Dumbledore's explaining it."

It didn't take long for Gaddy to decide that yes, the magical community was batshit insane. Apparently, this tournament was held between the top magic schools in Europe, and had been established a long time ago until it was discontinued from the increasing death toll of its 'champions'. That was enough for Gaddy to close her book, putting it back in her bag and setting it on the table to doze on.

Back home, the only general danger a student suffered in school-sponsored competitions was getting caught cheating. But here, money at the risk of your life. The decision between prize money and effervescent 'glory', or knowing she was not going to die, wasn't that hard of a choice. She was nearly asleep when Odette tapped on her shoulder, the hall suddenly filled with the shuffling sound of students moving on to their dorms.

"Tired already," Odette asked, moving aside as Gaddy stood and stretched.

"Bored. How far in the dungeons are the dorms?"

Odette grinned with a shake of her head. "It's one of the most inefficient ways of hiding the dorm. You'll hate it."

Gaddy cocked a brow, shouldering her bag and silently following Odette amidst the excited talk of the crowd.

* * *

**Endnotes**: Alright, you should know that I have been keeping things from you. Semi-important, mostly interesting things you might want to know but for the sake of not Steinbeck-ing I have decided you do not need. They are scenes, chapters, snippets, things I cut out of the published chapters because they include interesting, but really extraneous detail. But I can't just murder my babies, as writers are always told to do. Instead, I separate them from their preferred, matured siblings, and corral them in a room by themselves, among their own kind. And (if) when I reach my tenth chapter, and every tenth chapter thereof (save the last chapter in a story), I will post them, and allow the readers to read and enjoy these extras and behind the scenes and leftovers to their heart's content, as a sort of reprieve from Gaddy's ish.

I tell you this now because what Odette is referring to is the maze-like system that the Slytherin Common Rooms are hidden in. I was just having fun and being obnoxious, but now I don't want to let it go, I think it's funny and interesting, and goddamnit we had to go through it a little in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets PC game, so why the hell not?

So yea. Maybe in four more chapters you'll get to learn about it. But for now, just no Gaddy already isn't a morning person, and could pretty much be a bitch every morning for some time because of that stupid maze. But hey. It's necessary experience for what she'll have to go through. Muwahahahahaaa.


End file.
